TEPCO’s Radiation Suits: Sorry, No Boots

Two workers who were performing repairs at Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant were hospitalized with radiation burns on their feet after they walked into a pool of radioactive water:

Three workers were in the ankle-deep water Thursday and were carrying dosemeters. But they ignored the high-radiation warnings of the devices and continue repair work in the soaked basement of the No. 3 reactor’s turbine building, officials of Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant operator, said.

The water was about 15 centimeters deep, officials said.

“I thought (the dosemeter) was out of order,” one of the workers was quoted as saying. The radioactivity level had been low in the basement before.

TEPCO has come under fire for failing to properly ensure the safety of the workers trying to bring the nuclear crisis under control. The company has acknowledged that its safety measures were inadequate.

Two of the workers were rushed to a hospital in Fukushima city Thursday. They were taken Friday to the National Institute of Radiological Sciences in Chiba for examinations and treatment for possible beta ray radiation burns below their knees.

The third worker wearing long boots was unharmed.

It is unclear why the two workers weren’t equipped with footwear that could protect them from 15 centimeters of water. Judging from the photos from the power plant, it would seem that a lot of workers are just wearing normal shoes as part of their radiation suits. There also seems to be some folks with plastic bags duct-taped over their shoes:

When all of this is over and investigations take place, I’m sure we’ll find out some other examples of dangerous stupidity. Some may use evidence of TEPCO’s past misdeeds to claim that they’ll cover-up all their mistakes from this accident, but that just isn’t realistic. Whereas faked tests and mishandling of small accidents may go largely unnoticed by the public, this latest accident is bigger in scale and longer in duration. The attention and frustration of the entire country are focusing upon Japan’s leadership and TEPCO, and it would simply be unreasonable to expect that no serious inquiries and punishments will take place after this crisis is resolved.

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Some of you may ask, “Where the injured workers members of the brave Fukushima 50?”

No, they weren’t, because the “Fukushima 50″ are an invention of misinformed foreign journalists.

As Wikipedia notes, there was only a brief period on March 15th when most workers were evacuated and “around 50″ workers were left behind. By the time foreign newspapers were printing stories about the “Fukushima 50,” the number of workers at the site had already climbed to over 150. By March 18th, it was up to 580. There are now perhaps a thousand workers at the plant, and yet the foreign media is still printing headlines today about the “Fukushima 50″ and their battle against the reactors.

Your readers might also be interested in how to treat their radioactively contaminated drinking water:
crisismaven.wordpress.com/2011/03/22/dangers-properties-possible-uses-and-methods-of-purification-of-radioactively-contaminated-drinking-water-e-g-in-japan/
Maybe someone wants to help with Japanese and other languages?

I can see Tepco undergoing major reforms and shake ups once this is all said and done. As a public utility they really are too big to fail.

flowby

How is it biased?

http://hanlonsrzr.blogspot.com Mr. S.

If Tepco survives as a company, that will be a scandal.

http://tepido.org/ LB

While I agree in principle, I think the problem we will see is that TEPCO is “too big to fail”. Without TEPCO in some form or another, an awful lot of us in the Kanto area are going to be in big, big trouble when we have to try to work in the dark.

Unless someone has an idea how to nationalize them and put Edano in charge – that I could get behind for the short-term, but oftentimes if you want to screw things up worse than “big business”, put it in the sole hands of “big bureaucracy”.

http://theinconvenienttruthonwhaling.blogspot.com/ kujirakira

I could see Tepco being forced to sell off their assets and liquidated. All the assets will remain, but they’ll be operated and owned by other companies.
Granted, I’m seeing this through American perspective — I have no basis for how Japan deals with a company going financially under along with psychological fears and lost all public trust.

http://theinconvenienttruthonwhaling.blogspot.com/ kujirakira

Tepco will be finished one way or another, their stock may as well not even exist.
A lack PPE is inexcusable.
What I’m wondering is if there will be far-reaching reform for the entire structure of Japan’s nuclear regulation enforcement? Or if Tepco will just be the fall guy.
I also fear for the industry in general, even with these issues it will be a huge mistake if Japan (and others) turn away from nuclear power.

http://hanlonsrzr.blogspot.com Mr. S.

Can’t imagine Tepco is worth anything, though the Japanese economy works in ways that baffles understanding. As for @LB’s worry about Kanto going dark if Tepco ceases to exist, I don’t it see that happening. Something will run the assets. Public companies being worse than private? A myth. Both get more inefficient as size and corruption increases. What the so-called free-marketers don’t want us to realize is that in both cases the same sad human venality prevails, it’s just that they can’t loot as much unless it is privatized.

They’ll put this on Tepco for certain, but they’ve screwed the pooch too thoroughly to stick it to middle-management. Truth is to fix this sort of issue you need to work backwards to destroy the following: amakudari, ‘elite’ universities, entrance examinations, rote learning… ‘Japan Inc.’, in short.

http://tepido.org/ LB

You misunderstood me – I don’t worry about Kanto going dark, they (the government) would never let it happen. But in order to keep that from happening, as you say, someone or something will have to take over those assets. That someone or something will have to have experience in managing a very large power grid, and be able to take over the grid on very short notice, and have the manpower necessary to manage, run and maintain that grid and the power plants feeding into it right from the start… someone like “TEPCO”, for instance. It may not be called “TEPCO”, but out of necessity it is going to have to be (ex?)TEPCO people, working out of (ex?)TEPCO offices. Only the very top level management would be likely to change. There’s just nowhere else to go to suddenly find a whole new class of mid-level managers that are free of TEPCO ties and background.

As for public vs. private, that was my point. Both will screw the pooch, its human nature. With private ownership at least you can hope that some of the mid-level people will be honest workers as they have the threat of being fired if they are too inefficient. But full public ownership, with everyone being public servants, removes that sword hanging over people’s heads.

http://hanlonsrzr.blogspot.com Mr. S.

In a public union, but have worked in private companies, and I have never seen evidence for this: “With private ownership at least you can hope that some of the mid-level people will be honest workers as they have the threat of being fired if they are too inefficient. But full public ownership, with everyone being public servants, removes that sword hanging over people’s heads.” People learn to work whatever system they are in: appear useful rather than be useful in private, and act out of resentment over that sword.

http://theinconvenienttruthonwhaling.blogspot.com/ kujirakira

If this were public I don’t think there’d be an issue with lack of PPE though.

It would cost more, but that would be because the mid-level managers and finance department don’t have swords hanging over their heads to cut corners so that the investors can make money.

With government job security, you run the risk of getting disinterested employees who don’t care or take it seriously enough. But the ones who do are generally very good and interested in getting things right. People are also more likely to buy every part or item under the sun that they need.

With private, you run the risk of people cutting corners and trying to skate the system, like Tepco is now infamous for, because if they don’t find ways to cut costs they’ll get fired. Very few people will stand up and say “No, we need this…” and many of those will probably get herded out, or passed over for promotion, over time.

Neither is all they’re cracked up to be.
But with nuclear, it seems to me there needs to be more government involvement one way or another. Maybe that’s in the form of more independent quality control and inspections?

islandv

It is obvious that TEPCO cares very little about the workers at the plant, or in the Japanese people.
THere is NO EXCUSE for the daily ‘mistakes’ that TEPCO has been making, even before the quake and tsunami hit.
Just think what would have happened by now if the Fukushima Nuclear Power Facility was owned/operated by a foreign company.
The public and gov’t outcry and protests would have been huge, and the JCops would have already raided the offices.

I also feel sorry for these workers (mostly contractors). It is obvious that they lack the training necessary for working in these conditions.
If you believe your radiation monitor is not working properly, you have to STOP AND GET OUT IMMEDIATELY. I have worked in varous hazardous conditions, and that is rule #1. Always be safe.

Anonymous

It is obvious that TEPCO cares very little about the workers at the plant, or in the Japanese people.

Sounds like your average company dealing in something potentially hazardous, unfortunately. I am perfectly aware that businesses exist solely to make money, but too many put their own profits above the well-being of other people, even the workers that are their very foundation.

Ken Aston

You are often criticizing foreign tabloid media here. If you’d apply the same standards on Japanese tabloid newspapers you’d have a lot to criticize there as well. I haven’t read the term Fukushima 50 in any newspapers I am reading.

http://www.japanprobe.com James

You are often criticizing foreign tabloid media here….. I haven’t read the term Fukushima 50 in any newspapers I am reading.

This business with a lack of proper boots reminds me of the amateurish screw-up at the Tokaimura fuel plant in 1999.

flowby

I had the same dreadful thought.

Criticality in a bucket (OMFG) and inappropriate wear – short boots??? – and ignoring meter warnings two weeks into one of the worlds most serious nuclear incidents(OMFG) = stoneage nuclear industrial practices.

And they call the cops Keystone!!!

http://witzl.blogspot.com/ MaryWitzl

I had no idea so many workers were involved there. I assumed it must be a lot more than 50, but not as many as a thousand. These guys deserve a LOT, but at the very least, decent trust funds set up for their families.

chimps

There is no thing as a “Radiation Suit”. What they are wearing are Anti-contamination suits. There is no suit that can stop the very harmful gamma and neutron radiation. It takes lead and many tens of centimeters of concrete to stop neutrons and gamma. So there is NO special type of shoe they can wear.
The point of the anti-contamination suits is to keep contamination off your body and when you leave the area you wore the suit you also take the suit off and leave behind any contamination you picked up. Thus the bags over their shoes. This is industry standard practice. Although it concerns me that they are walking with them on asphalt. That would seem easy to tare.
The radiation burns the received from working in the water does not require that the water ever touch their skin. If the water is highly contaminated then it is emitting radiation and that caused the burns, thus radiation burns.